ALL news, in some way or another, concerns itself with the quality of life, and too often nowadays it seems that man's dreams of Utopia have become nightmares of dirt and despair. The atmosphere stifles rather than sustains; water poisons rather than refreshes; machinery and appliances invented for service and comfort fail to function and sometimes even maim and kill. What has anyone done about it? Until fairly recently, not a great deal. This week TIME'S cover tells the story of Ralph Nader, one man who felt that something had to be done--and set out to do it himself. Nader has spearheaded many of the gains the U.S. consumer has recently made in government, business and industry, science and medicine --wherever it is vital to attack the perils that have been masquerading as progress.

The cover story was written by William Doerner, edited by Marshall Loeb and researched by Claire Barnett, all of whom have firm ideas about what Nader should level his sights on next. For Doerner, who stands 6 ft. 5 1/2 in., the big issue is "the enormous conspiracy against tall people. I can't ride in the back seat of any car, I can't find clothes to fit, and shaving mirrors always seem to be fixed at the level of my belt. It's a plot to keep us unclad and bedraggled." For the life of him, Doerner can't understand why Nader doesn't do something about it. After all, he himself is 6 ft. 4 in.

Last July, TIME offered four free columns of advertising space each week for a year to a group of agencies for an experiment in communications. We invited them to turn their creative energy loose on any topic at all--except a product. In the weeks since, TIME'S readers have heard about patriotism, battered children, truth, tradition, poverty, blindness, language and protest. The agencies report that the response has been abundant and heartwarming. Leo Burnett Co. Inc.'s ad on environment and pollution resulted in requests for 30,000 reprints. After urging the silent citizen to speak out, Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample Inc. received a flood of congratulations, including one note allowing that "maybe Madison Avenue isn't all bad after all." The ad that has so far drawn the most active response was by Young & Rubicam (Oct. 24), which urged citizens to help construct play areas in ghettos and reminded everyone that little parks can be built even with nickels. To date, the ad has brought in $26,000, of which $16,000 will immediately be spent for a minipark in the heart of Harlem. Contributors ranged from a foundation that gave $7,000 to schoolchildren who sent their nickels--and pennies too. "We are a class in Marshfield," read one covering letter, "and we are contributing $1.84 for the park in Harlem."

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